Zihvuda's manga / #Revenge(11)

This is another "reality is a game" kind of story a la Solo Leveling, only the mc in this is pretty much an asshole. And I do mean that in the most affectionate way. Like House from the doctor show from years back. He's a smirking badass who's also an asshole. Story is revenge driven and fun to read. Something that bothers me a little is that I get the feeling the character knows a little too much about certain things. I think it's just not well established, but a lot of the darker dealings of the Messiah guild the MC knows about, I was under the impression he'd have no way of knowing seeing as he was being used and MC thought everything was in service of saving the world and shit. =/ Otherwise, it's fun, no romance just intrigue and action. (ﾉ￣ᗜ￣)ﾉ✧*✲ﾟ*｡⋆

So this starts off great, and gets you pumped for the beat-downs to come, and does deliver on those for the most part. Then things start to get complicated when it starts telling us about the other kingdoms? Empires? whatever, and their own inner strife and political intrigue, and... I just can't keep all that shit straight. Can we please just focus on what MC is doing and stuff that he is directly involve with please? It's getting a bit too crowded and taking away some of my interest by showing me stuff that's kind of boring. And that's because it's an exposition dump. Exposition is good, but only when introduced correctly, this feels like I was pulled away from the comic to read a history textbook. But for the most part the plot is good and the story keeps you engaged and honestly I love how smirky and confident the MC is. Also, everyone is hot.... Like seriously, the vast majority of characters regardless of how advanced in years, are hot. What is happening? All the villains and good guys are all ridiculously hot! Also, also, is there a missing shonen ai tag or something? MC sort of acts disdainful towards all girls, mentions a significant woman from his past who he specifically makes clear he wasn't in love with, but calls the pretty boy pretty and makes him blush and caresses his face a little. What? It's fine, and a nice twist I guess... And dude is nice only to guys mostly. Oh! Also, MC's mom! For someone who was so important to mc, she's basically a plank of wood. She is so underdeveloped that MC might as well have been hauling around a painting. And she's barely in the story despite him being all happy at managing to save her. She isn't shocked at the change in her child, she isn't outraged at someone trying to murder her and her son, she seems to have barely any reaction other than mild worry, or motherly smile. There is nothing else to her and it's frustrating, because in the end she's not a character, but an object to be saved. Was there a need to keep her alive at all? Especially when she's kept around and treated as important but in the end is shelved by the author. The author had mom accompany Mc to the capital and live with him in a house and then had her move out "for her own safety" and then she was never heard from again! She's finally written out of the story, which is good cause the author clearly had absolutely no interest in her. What is she in the story for?? ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Edit: Aaand now at ch 94 this is starting to look like a harem after all. All the girls are falling for him and wanting to marry him, which is annoying. Fortunately it's not interfering with the plot too much. As of yet anyway. But there has been one "cat fight" over the protagonist already, which is a bit disappointing. It's not gotten unbearable and I hate harems, but it's something to keep in mind for anyone not into that sort of thing.

I don't really understand why this is rated so highly, doesn't really seem any good. He got 2 years probation and then he's kicked out of school and his home. How? He's still a minor there's no way this shit would fly. Rather than getting me hyped for what's going to happen next I'm frustrated at every turn by things in the plot I find stupid. Really can't get into it. Also guys refusing to teach him how to fight because "he's not there yet" or whatever just gives me all the rage. It doesn't come off as them judging his adeptness for fighting, it more comes across as them not knowing what the fuck they're talking about. I'd rather they just refuse to teach him on the grounds that it's a pain, and they have no idea how to teach. Which is probably the case anyway. Ugh, really not for me.

Another interesting story ruined by some group who can't actually translate to english, they might as well have not bothered and uploaded raws. You get about 61 chapters of story you can understand, and then you get chapters translated by people who don't know enough english to make sense. It's a shame, but I'm gonna have to drop the story. MC has a lot of trauma to work through, she's bad ass but also broken as she barely ever smiles. It's sad, and a good story. I would recommend it, except for all the chapters that need to be translated by someone competent.

This is about a little mage boy who comes from a very prestigious family, but who has his talent snuffed out by getting sick with some sort of disease that affects him in no other way except to keep him from using magic. Because of this his family status hits rock bottom, because women don't matter I guess (he has a sister who isn't sick and so can use magic). We don't get to meet the sister directly, and while I don't think this is a bad story, it's not really worthy of the rating it has in my opinion. This story is non-stop action. It is pretty much all action and very little character. This isn't to say the MC is unlikable or boring, but that there isn't enough emotional pay off for the story beats. MC just constantly gets into fights, grows stronger, and in the end it just feels like grinding in video games. Very little plot development happens, and even after 40 chapters of story it still feels like nothing has happened plot wise and that we are *still* doing prep work for the story to begin. MC's interaction with other characters feels empty and superficial even as there are desperate hints that things are deeper. It's a shame, but I do understand the people who dropped this because they got bored... there isn't much to latch on to. The author tries to hit emotional beats during arcs, but just doesn't quite manage, and I can't put my finger on exactly how they mess it up. It just needs... more. The art is pretty good, but also there's a lot of reusing panels and cutting away from action to save on time. There was one panel in particular that irked me, which was one where mc, his best friend and some of his friend's family were sat down having tea, and both mc and his best friend were drawn in the exact same position. It made sense for the best friend because he was leaning on an arm rest, it did not make sense for mc because he didn't have an arm rest and he was right next to his best friend so it looked even more awkward. Also the explanations on magic and stuff is simultaneously too much and also badly explained. Mc supposedly swallows "talent" but when he manages it they don't really explain how he does it, the art doesn't really convey it either. For example if I were to cosplay as the mc and try to "swallow talent" at an anime con it wouldn't work cause I'd have no idea how he actually does it. All in all there's much better stories on this site so I wouldn't really recommend this one. There's too much exposition, the mc's magic system is explained rather badly, his own level and growth is shown badly, the art would be good if it actually illustrated the story better, reused panels less, and the emotional pay off for most of the story beats is insufficient.

This is the first historical korean yaoi manhua I've read where there's no rape involved with the plot. The bar is so low this is what constitutes high praise in stories like this. V_V I like the main couple, although the art can be iffy at times, and the seme hiding stuff is kind of played out but, that's par for the course in these kinds of stories. The way they got together was so natural, and them loving on each other is great. This is almost exactly the kind of story I've been wanting from this kind of setting for a long time. Wish more of these stories were like this rather than resorting to rape as some sort of plot device. Haon is understandably naive, Gon is understandably traumatized. It's a good story, not great mind, but absolutely serviceable with the avalanche of crap we otherwise get. The art is a small issue. Characters look good, and the sex is drawn fine, but the action, in this action manhua isn't quite there, and that's a shame. Still, I do recommend it, if only until we get better yaoi stories for historical settings.

I've almost dropped this story a number of times. I get bored and just as it gets to the point where I'm almost ready to give up, the story picks up. The most compelling aspect I think is the revenge. Younger twin dies, leaves behind a diary that somehow makes it to the older twin, and older twin chooses murder- I mean revenge. Revenge murder. Anyway, the story feels like the author wasn't sure what they were doing at the beginning. At one point it almost seemed like they were writing the story as if the first twin had reincarnated rather than leaving diary entries in a watch behind. Also it was very unclear as to how much info was in the diary to begin with. Like i thought what was shown in the initial exposition sequence was it, and was very confused when mc knew about and talked about things that were not included in that sequence. At time I thought he knew waaaay to much about the world, that the brother would have had no reason to write about all that in his diary. There's a love interest that I'm not particularly down with, although they themselves don't actually do anything bad. The girl isn't allowed to fight or anything though. It's implied she's very strong and stuff, but she never fights, or we never see her fight. Which annoys me, cause she's supposed to be a warrior martial artist. <_< The action isn't depicted particularly well through the art, I'm often confused what's happening and sometimes the action is skipped altogether so the artist doesn't need to draw it. This changes somewhat in the later chapters, but there it seems to devolve into lots of lazer firing. I wanna see mc kill all of his brother's murderer's but it's pretty slow going. Also I don't understand why mc bothered going to that world, he'd given up looking, thinking the twin had abandoned them, and just decided he didn't care. Mc's mom died, some years later the brother's stuff makes it to him, and he decides to just go off into the fantasy world. In a way it does make sense, but in another I don't understand why he ended up caring. It would have been nice seeing mc resent his brother, grieve, but ultimately come to this decision of going up the tower. A lot of the thought bubbles are weird too, it keeps containing narration, which is weird since it's supposed to be mc thinking about things. It's very odd. The translation ranges from passable to good, but yeah weirdness with the narration being in the wrong place and speech bubbles that issue from characters who aren't the ones actually speaking. This could be better, and the artist and writer need better communication so the art can actually depict the story better. All in all, meh... it's alright, give this story a go if you wish. It may be better to just read the novel though. Unless the translation for the novel is dog shit.

I wont bother with giving my own summery, it would be difficult. This story made me feel a lot of conflicting emotions. And a lot of second hand embarrassment, to the point I'd frequently have to do something else. Also a lot of wtf-moments or what-the-fuck-ery. It's definitely interesting, and if you're already familiar with this author's other stuff, then you'll likely have a blast. Personally it was a bit too wild of a story for me to really get emotionally invested in, so when real sad and dramatic moments happened I was aware of them, but not really affected. It's kind of the same as when I tried reading Gintama, except that Gintama was far more frustrating than this. This was a fun read in a way, and it seems to have really worked for a lot of people. I managed to finish the story and I do like how it turned out and I don't regret giving it my time. It's a shame, cause I do absolutely love "How to Fight"/"Viral Hit" whatever the title is these days, but this author's other works just don't work for me at all. The story is ok, if you like manager kim or lookism, you should probably like this too. There's references here and there to the other in-universe stories by this author. Oh, um.. the translation ranges from ok to "I wish these were translated by someone else". For some reason this author's works attract translation teams who may be great with korean but barely able to string two sentences together in english. It's definitely not word-salad level of bad when it gets bad, but not what I'd term good either. The art as always is brilliant! Never got any complaints about the art.

Warning: gore A loyal and long serving soldier is betrayed by his lord of a father, who has him executed on trumped up charges. The soldier dies but also goes back in time to when he was a baby and has his life to relive. He decides he's going to get revenge on the man who neglected him, used him and ultimately killed him. He does so by getting stronger but also continuing to serve his father, playing the long game I guess. So far the only changes to his previous life are his strength and his own feelings towards his father. He doesn't really do anything that different except adapt to the changes his increased strength bring. His father suddenly loves him for being a strong genius, but MC continues to think to himself about revenge and shit. The plot is pretty paint by numbers, there's no attempt at character development, rather MC seems to stay unchanged so far, the other characters seem to like him, but it's clear MC has no interest in forming any sort of genuine relationships, though he does act like the good and loyal son for his father. The character interactions are kind of boring to me. Now, the revenge, which is the driving force of the plot also starts to lose it's appeal after a bit, because the author doesn't communicate MC's future steps and plan with regards to *how* he's going to take revenge on his father. You just see him meander from one thing to another, and mostly he seems to go along with it for reasons, but we don't find out why or how any of it will help. Most of the stuff he does is not only to increase his strength but also to please his father, and honestly my question would be why? And how is this different? MC instead is just made to remind the audience that he still hates his dad, and still wants bad things for him. I lost interest because of that. Another thing that really doesn't help with the story is the frankly badly delivered exposition. Several times in the story MC will go "ah yes, this thing", conveying that he knows the thing, and then, regardless of this assertion, another character will still exposit the thing to him in detail. They do it all the time and it's so strange! Why are they telling MC shit he already knows?? Especially when he acts like he knows in front of these people? It's not a good look when you end up skipping half the dialogue because you're not interested in the world building info. MC already knows everything, and directly thinks he's not interested in politics or anything that's happening around him, just his own goals. So why would the audience be interested when MC himself doesn't care? The information doesn't help, and it changes nothing for MC or the story. For these reasons I find this quite boring, and can't really recommend it, which is a shame. The art is VERY good. Nothing looks bad or awkward, characters look good from all the angles as do the backgrounds and animals. It's rare for an artist to be good at both animals and people, but here we are. I'm sad the story and plot couldn't match up to the greatness of the art. The panels flow, and there's not a time where I'm confused as to what is happening in story with the art. The translation seems fine and consistent for the most part, though I also didn't make it that far, so I wouldn't be able to confirm it's going to keep being that way.

Found this under the martial arts tag. lol. You know how some action comics will have romance in the background, but despite that you wouldn't consider it romance? Yeah, that's how tenuous the martial arts tag is in this. Anyway, A severely bullied kid finds himself thrown off the school roof by his bullies. The school covers it up, he ends up in a coma that's more locked in body syndrome then an actual coma. The hospital declares him to be in a vegetative state. This should mean no brain function and so no way he could be conscious of things happening around him and hearing people and the TV. Hospitals can monitor brain function and determine these things pretty effectively, yet the translation keeps calling him a vegetable (i.e. no brain function) despite that demonstrably not being the case. Yep, sure is another story where the translator or author doesn't know the meaning of the words they are using. But so, MC spends 10 years in this weird locked in syndrome thing, until he suddenly goes back in time to the day his bullying starts. He wants all of the revenge and proceeds to ape-shit his way to it with a hell of a lot of brains and some brawn. Though not enough for this to deserve the martial arts tag imo. Nitpicking aside the story is pretty compelling, though has some weaknesses for me. It's very addictive and binge worthy. A lot happens, but it's not overwhelming nor does it give you action fatigue. The pacing is great and nothing outstays it's welcome! MC's motivation is extremely compelling and his single minded pursuit of his goals drags you through the narrative mercilessly, making it difficult to put this story down to go to the toilet let alone be a functioning member of society. Character development belongs solely to MC, the other characters are barely better then cardboard cut outs. Everyone sucks, including MC sometimes (which is fine), but the "bad guys" are so over the top I can see some people being put off by it. So that's one of the weaknesses, character development and character moments for people other than MC. We barely get to see MC spending time with his family, talking and having family bonding time. We get some things with the little bro, but it's all solved so quickly we barely see MC and bro together before the story moves on. The trainer and friend are absent for much of the story despite MC supposedly meeting them like every day. Also MC manages to get perfect grades despite all the shit he's doing. How is he even getting home to cook for his family on time if he's off training and having meetings so often?? How is he just fucking off to meet all the dudes for his schemes without his grandmother trying to parent and figure out what this kid is up to. He gets fucked up so much at the beginning but we get no reactions from the family because the whole scene of him being at home with those injuries is entirely missing. Like I wanted more character moments, but fuck me if I know where in the hell the author would have stuck them without completely ruining the pacing of the story. Thus, I'd argue that his family should have been cut entirely and he should have been a welfare kid living alone. The translation ranges from passable to ok. Wouldn't call it great, but it's legible and doesn't completely destroy one's immersion in the story. The art.... needs some more work. The action looks good but the faces are ugly in the way that comes from the artist having trouble with drawing them, rather than because this is a story mostly populated with ugly terrible people. It's really mostly just the faces, the body proportions and depiction of action is good. All in all, it's popcorn, not particularly good or stimulating, but great fun and easily consumed.